


So Cold

by StevetheIcecube



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Child Shulk, Gen, Ose Ruins, Spoilers, The Monado, Valak Mountain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 17:06:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12325236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevetheIcecube/pseuds/StevetheIcecube
Summary: The expedition to Valak Mountain makes a deadly discovery.





	So Cold

"It's cooold," the boy complained, tugging his father's hand back towards the forest. "I don't like it here."

"Shh, Shulk," he said. "This is important. Zip your coat up a bit further, I'm sure we'll be there soon, and it'll be warmer in the ruins."

"But it's getting colder, pa!" He said. "Please, I don't like it."

"Now come on," he said. "I know you don't like it, but when we're there we can get warm and then we can go back again. We're going to go to Alcamoth and you get to meet the High Entia, won't that be nice?"

Shulk said nothing else, trying not to cry. He was really tired and super cold. Really, super cold. He felt like he couldn't walk much further, and his face was covered in snow. If he went much further, he was sure he was going to just collapse in the snow and his dad would let go of his hand and just leave him there to freeze and die and-

"See, Shulk?" His father said, squeezing his hand. Shulk looked up. "We're here now! We just need to get the door open, and by that point we'll be out of the wind and we can get a fire going."

Shulk just nodded, staring at the doors in front of them. There was ice everywhere, it was freezing, and he didn't feel any better. He felt worse. There was something very cold inside that room, he could feel it. There was also a feeling like the one he got inside really big, old buildings. There was something old inside.

The door opened, and hushed cheers sounded around the group. They were in, and chattering started immediately. They all crowded into the room they'd just opened. Shulk stopped. He didn't like this. It all gave him a bad feeling. His father let go of his hand without realising to follow his mother into the ruins. Shulk stayed where he was.

There was a cold feeling in his feet, and he closed his eyes for a moment. Blood rushed to his head, his heart started racing, and with his eyes closed he could see a faint impression of the group in front of him lying on the ground. The cold feeling in his feet started crawling up his ankles. He opened his eyes and saw the whole group talking in front of something he couldn't see, but they were crowded all around it.

He wanted to go in, remind them to start a fire so they could get warm. He went to move forwards and then he realised he couldn't move. Something was wrong. Something was really, really wrong.

He opened his mouth to call out to his parents to get them to come and take him inside with them, but even as he shouted, no sound came out. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and tried to shout to them again, but when he closed his eyes all he could see was red and blue and gold lights all around him, encircling him, and for a while he could do nothing but watch them.

When he opened his eyes, it was the scene from when he closed them before. He had moved. He was inside the room now, and all around him people were lying on the floor. They looked cold. He was cold. He didn't understand why he wasn't lying down too, but he was still moving. He was moving without wanting to. He wanted to stop and find his parents and wake them up because they forgot to start a fire and they'd probably freeze without one.

There was a red sword on a plinth. It was really bright where everything else was grey and dark. He felt drawn to it, in his mind, even though this was the terribly cold and incredibly old object in the ruins. His legs were moving him towards it, too, but he couldn't feel his legs anymore. He couldn't feel much at all except the icy cold creeping up his body.

His arms, now frozen and out of his control, reached out towards the sword. It had been nudged sideways from where it was meant to sit, that much he could see, and he watched as his hands gently set it right. When it was back in place, he felt the creeping cold shoot into his heart. Panicking, he turned back to find the matches that his father always kept in his coat, but before he could even find his father's sleeping form, his body went heavy and he fell to the floor.

Trying to conserve his heat like his mother always told him he should do if he was cold, he curled up on the floor underneath the plinth.

He closed his eyes, and images of a huge night sky, and the stars, and strange orbs that glowed in the darkness, formed in the mind that, for an instant in time, held nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi :) Xenoblade is a super small fandom so if you liked this a comment is deeply appreciated!


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